You will be surprised how many old people rely on health monitoring devices that use 2G to send basic data.
A big blocker that the article surprisingly doesn't talk about is tons of IoT stuff that uses 2G and 3G. Stuff like alarm systems, emergency phones, street light control, cars etc. Here in Sweden there was recently a report that thousands of elevators have emergency phones using 2G and 3G, and if the network is shut down you would no longer be allowed to use those elevators. And since 2018 all new cars in the EU has to have eCall, which alerts emergency services on a crash. Many of these use 2G and 3G, and if it stops working the car won't pass inspection so you'll no longer be allowed to drive it.
I’m in a recovery group and someone shared how dangerous 5G was and that they have to move again because there is too much 5G in their area…. I’m still dumbfounded.
I am still baffled by these idiots after I learned how 5g works. It isn't just frequencies increases (I could see why someone might be sceptical about this one). The main difference is simply using another protocol which allows to send more bits with a single signal.
If there is any thought to it, it usually goes something like "Radio is/was fine because it's kilo/megahertz, Wifi/5G is gigahertz waves of electromagnetic radiation.(?!?!)"
Could always point to the Terahertz electromagnetic radiation source plugged into their nearest lightbulb socket and ask how that doesn't hurt them.
what benefits does 5g offer over 2g?
5g > 2g if g is positive
Aktchually g gets simplified so it's 5 > 2 for any value
What if g is zero?
Zero g is only available in special airplanes and in space, so not much of a worry for most people.
Damn it! I was dreaming of one day scrolling Lemmy on a 0g connection. You ruined my dreams and I am sad now.
We switched off 3G this year in the UK and my brothers phone stopped being able to make calls. He was using a 6 year old high-end Android phone, but it was from just before the cutoff where you could turn on VoLTE (calls over 4G).
Thankfully, I had a spare phone from the next year after that to hand him, and that one could work with some hidden menu (the type you type into your dialer) hacking.
So is the difference between 2g, 3g, 4g and 5g that they use different channels/frequencies, different communication protocols, or both?
There's also changing from circuit to packet switching, which also drastically changes how the handover process works.
tl;Dr - handover in 5G is buggy and barely works. The whole thing of switching from one service area to another in the middle of a call is held together by hopes and dreams.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
